


once more

by notthelasttime



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alcohol, Getting Together, Hook-Up, M/M, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 12:34:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notthelasttime/pseuds/notthelasttime
Summary: Ignis goes to straighten hiss glasses, only to realized they're not on his face, and the little flounder and touch of embarrassment that follows is so endearing Nyx can see a straight line down all the things that brought them to this situation, why he'd jumped in with enthusiasm. What would people say? Ignis Scientia, too young, too arrogant, already thinking he can voice his opinion on serious matter to the Council, to the King. Ignis Scientia, guiding force to the young wayward Prince, drinking heavily in his off-hours, shacking up with a Glaive, one 10 years his senior and worse, a Galahadian refugee. The things people would say and the stories they would try to turn. Nyx was used to a certain level of disdain, but it was one thing to deal with it on your own, knowing who you were and who you weren't, knowing what fights were worth fighting and what to let roll of your back. That didn't mean he wanted to drag someone down there with him. Especially not someone like Ignis."I think," Ignis says, fists clutching the sheets around his waist, "it might be best if we pretend this never happened."





	once more

**Author's Note:**

> starting ignyx week off with a bang (so to speak) by finishing up this oneshot that I've had sitting in my drafts for 6+ months

**ONE**

_Don't panic._

He can see the words hovering just under the surface of Ignis's carefully crafted expression of calm, just as surely as he can feel them in his chest. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time.

But now, now the mess of a bed, the clothes strewn about the room, the way Ignis is looking at him, all naked and debauched and definitely trying not to panic, now that the sun is up and consequences seem imminent, it all just serves to make his heart beat faster and his head throb. The hangover isn't helping much either.

_Don't panic._

He clears his throat. It's awkward now that they're both awake, that hazy early morning sleep softness gone, from warm and laying so close next to each other to the crash of reality, and who they were laying next to. Nyx can mostly remember what happened. Mostly. He's afraid there are missing bits and pieces, but the picture he has in his mind of the night before is all the same either way, with or without the details. Tensions have been high at the Citadel, a series of big events, visiting dignitaries, upcoming celebrations all lined up and there's been nonstop preparation, day in and day out. They were all feeling it, higher ups just as much as the Glaives, the Marshal and Drautos breathing down their necks for perfection, knowing they'd been standing on guard for all the events to come. They'd decided to hit the bars before everyone snapped. All of them, from Council members to the lowest recruits in an uncommon display of camaraderie. Even if they hadn't all been commingling at least they hadn't been at each other's throats- there was enough to worry about otherwise. One night, one break, wouldn't kill them. The problem was booze made Nyx flirty, the problem was it had been an age since he'd gotten laid.

The problem was Ignis, dangerously handsome Ignis, had been so quick to reciprocate and he'd looked so alluring when he finally started to smile and if Nyx had been out of line Ignis hadn't stopped him and when they kissed in the hidden corner by the bathrooms Ignis had been so willing to open his mouth and Ignis had known how to sneak out together without anyone seeing them just like he'd known how to sneak Nyx back to his apartment at the Citadel in secret.

Ignis. Now looking like he's on the verge of panic.

Ignis goes to straighten hiss glasses, only to realized they're not on his face, and the little flounder and touch of embarrassment that follows is so endearing Nyx can see a straight line down all the things that brought them to this situation, why he'd jumped in with enthusiasm. What would people say? Ignis Scientia, too young, too arrogant, already thinking he can voice his opinion on serious matter to the Council, to the King. Ignis Scientia, guiding force to the young wayward Prince, drinking heavily in his off-hours, shacking up with a Glaive, one 10 years his senior and worse, a Galahdian refugee. The things people would say and the stories they would try to turn. Nyx was used to a certain level of disdain, but it was one thing to deal with it on your own, knowing who you were and who you weren't, knowing what fights were worth fighting and what to let roll of your back. That didn't mean he wanted to drag someone down there with him. Especially not someone like Ignis.

"I think," Ignis says, fists clutching the sheets around his waist, "it might be best if we pretend this never happened."

**TWO**

It's nearly a full day later before he finds the pictures.

He's got time to kill, nowhere else better to be, and a head that's still spinning. But he's doing his best to forget and hanging around in the training rooms is as good of a distraction as anything else. The Marshal is becoming a permanent fixture, watching over the Glaives run drills while muttering to Drautos. Maybe, normally, it'd put Nyx on edge again, but as it is he can't quite shake the lingering headache from his hangover, all those turning, spinning thoughts aside. So he sits on the sidelines, not really watching and trying to fight a foul mood, not sure why he should feel so foul in the first place. 

His phone buzzes.

Nyx tries not to sigh as he fishes it out of his pocket, expecting junk mail and disappointed when that's what it is anyway. Even better, his phone buzzes again as he deletes it, an annoying notification across the screening, yelling at him because he's about to run out of memory space, and Nyx _motherfucks_ the damn thing because he _just_ emptied out what he could to make more space hardly two days ago, and here the piece of shit is telling him he's almost full up again. Pictures then, there have got to be old pictures he can delete to make his phone shut up for a while. 

He opens up his photo album.

Immediately shuts in again, pulse spiking and face washed over warm and he casually tries to look like he's not frantically checking to see if anyone else saw what he just saw.

No, no everyone else seems to be wrapped up enough in their own bullshit so Nyx, suddenly sweaty and feeling like a voyeur, opens up his photos again.

He doesn't remember taking them, and that's probably the worst part because they're all of Ignis. 

Rather, him and Ignis. And him doing things to Ignis and Ignis doing things to him and there are dozens of them from what he can tell, scrolling up through his pictures and keeping his phone as close to his body and hidden as possible in case someone tries to walk up behind him and start a conversation. He picks one at random and lets it fill up the screen.

Ignis on his stomach and the picture is mostly of his back, but just at the bottom of the screen he can see Ignis's ass and the little bit of himself that's his dick pressing inside. He swipes; Ignis looking over a shoulder, but the angle has changed and his face his mostly hidden and the flash of the camera had washed out his skin. Swipe; Ignis mid-blowjob, eyes catching the light and looking impossibly green and somehow, even with his mouth preoccupied it looks like he's wearing a smirk. Swipe; Ignis on top of him, and probably riding him hard if the motion blur is anything to go by and far in the back of Nyx's head is the vacant thought that it's a shame, because otherwise it'd be such a great shot of Ignis's body and his cock. Swipe; nothing but the skin of an ambiguous body part, and too zoomed in to make anything out.

Swipe.

There's a picture of them, imperfect as the rest in that the framing and focus aren't quite right, but Nyx stops. It's the two of them, both their faces in view, Nyx just over Ignis's shoulder, laying stomach to back and pressed close like a pair of legitimate lovers. Nyx looks drunk, because of course he does, but he's got on his best little crooked grin, watching Ignis from the corner of his eyes. And then there's Ignis, hair pushed off to the side, and sultry eyes looking directly at the camera. Like a challenge. Like he knows Nyx is looking at him now, and his mouth, pouty and open just enough to let out a little moan, a sound Nyx can recall without trying.

"Nyx."

There's something about it. Nyx can't stop staring, and even though they're both clearly naked and in bed together, it's downright tame compared with everything else Nyx seemed dead set on documenting. But it's erotic in a way the other pictures aren't, knowing even though he can't see it that he was pressed deep inside Ignis when the picture was taken. Something about it makes his chest seize because there's a recalling of all the desire he felt that night. Not just to fuck, but to kiss and to touch and to hold onto him afterwards, to take enough pictures to remember him by, to not want to stop until dawn.

"_Nyx_."

Nyx looks up, startled from wandering thoughts and finds Drautos and the Marshal staring him down, the former looking like he's about ready to tear Nyx a new asshole, and he probably will just as soon as the Marshal's out of earshot. He scrambles to his feet and shoves his phone safely in his pocket, trying not to think about what would happen if either of them had seen what had been absorbing his attention full force, if Cor Leonis, _the Immortal_ had spotted dirty pictures of Ignis Scientia on his phone. He'd be dead, for one, and Ignis would then immediately die of mortification if Cor said anything, but at least if they're both dead then and Nyx wouldn't have to stick around to see the consequences of sharing explicit pictures of the Princes advisor. He didn't particularly want to know if those rumors about the Lucian dungeons were true.

"Sir?" he says, as he walks closer, doing his best not to look guilty and knowing that Drautos will have his ass for getting caught on his phone (_nevermind_ the fact that he's not even on duty because all that matters is the Marshal bearing witness to his supposed slacking). 

The Immortal looks about as close to amused as possible while Drautos is still staring down daggers as he says in a tight voice, "The Marshal would like to know your opinion on security for Wednesday's event."

With as much grace as he can muster while his mind's more focused on the phone burning a hole in his pocket, Nyx tries to put together some coherent thoughts and ideas about how best to guard the Prince and rotate Glaives through the room. A failing effort, but at least neither of his superiors demands to know what he'd been so concerned with on his phone.

Small victories. 

**THREE**

There’s a clear defining line on that night that says it was a one time thing. An accident, so to speak. Brought on by stress and booze and something they will be adults about, but that means it’s done. It’s something they walk away from and don’t come back to.

Too bad Nyx can’t stop staring at the pictures on his phone.

He tried to delete them. Really, seriously, truly. Tried multiple times and found his thumb hovering over the trash can with each one, hung up on the thought of losing some permanent evidence of that night and not sure why it should matter, and in the end he _did_ get manage to get rid of some of them. All the blurry and out of focus images, close ups of thighs and backs and half faces cut off the screen. He just refuses to admit how long it took him to bite the bullet, or how long he's been staring at that one picture of the two of them together, lying back to front.

The event on Wednesday evening is a welcoming party of sorts. Cocktails and mingling in the open air ballroom by one of the smaller rooftop gardens, a get together as political as any meeting, but the Lucians can mask it as a celebration when those they're welcome are Lady Lunafreya and Ravus Nox Fleuret. 

Nyx stands guard, an outsider, onlooker to the festivities, back straight and eyes darting around the room for possible dangers and warning signs of trouble to come. He knows the chances of something happening are beyond minuscule, but he knows that slacking on the job is asking for trouble. Not from the General, but trouble for himself. As it is he can help himself from letting his gaze flicker to the figure on the other side of the room, dressed in his formal best and guiding Prince Noctis from one official to the other, making their formal greetings. 

Ignis looks fantastic. Maybe Nyx preferred him dressed down, jacket off and sleeves rolled up like he was on that night at the bar, but this is a good look too. Black tie formal, his hair slicked back and gloves on, glass of champaign in one hand that's never empty, while he effortlessly works the room. Nyx needs a drink himself. The Glaives are rotating duty, and he'll have a chance to take a break in another hour or two, but until then he's stuck watching and waiting and pretending he's not letting his mind wander to the taste of Ignis's mouth and all the trouble waiting on him should he give in to temptation. 

So it's a struggle but he prevails, somehow managing to be on his best behavior during the longest night of his life, and all he can keep thinking about is how nice it would be to have somebody to bring home with him tonight, another chance to blow off steam and erase the tension that's been eating him up the past few days. There are other people he can approach, other people he could ease into bed with that on any other given day, he would do so with enthusiasm. But tonight all he can think about is Ignis- and how no one else would even be worth the effort. So given the first chance, when Pelna comes to relieve him of his post, Nyx snatches a glass of champaign from a passing trey and slips out into the cool night air and the dimly lit garden of low hedges and night blooming flowers, faint sounds of some decadent fountain cascading water in the distance. Looking up at the half moon, it feels like the first time he's been able to breathe easy all night, but instead of feeling better a sort of sullenness seeps over him, all that faint longing there with it. 

Most of the attendees are busy mingling which lets Nyx get some peace and quiet outside, only leaving the nook against the wall he's been leaning against to deposit his empty glass and grab another. He unbuttons his jacket, because no one is out here to yell at him for appearances, and he falls into introspection, waiting for the night to be over so he can slink back home in peace. 

Then Ignis comes outside. 

With the veneer gone he's looking drained, his glance around the garden missing Nyx in the shadows and coming to the conclusion that he's alone, Ignis loosens his collar and lets his posture slump. He's still holding a glass, with his empty hand going into a pocket, and Nyx watches his shoulders rise and fall as he takes a deep breath and looks up at the sky. 

Nyx is once again the voyeur. And if he's smart, he'll slip back inside and Ignis will be none the wiser to his peeping, and he can enjoy the rest of his night in peace. Without Nyx. Without the drunk hookup that Ignis said they should forget, _meaning_ he doesn't want it to happen again.

"Long night?"

Ignis avoids jumping as Nyx steps out of the shadows, but his head snaps around, immediately on alert. It's hard to say to say if Ignis really relaxes when he turns to see who's there, but his demeanor still changes. From high alert to something else, and if Nyx isn't imagining things he'd say that Ignis's cheeks look pink. Then again, maybe that's just the booze.

"Mr. Ulric," Ignis says, then almost cringes, "... Nyx," he amends. He's off balance, and Nyx would be lying if he said it didn't somehow spark a fire in his blood and pool more of that desire in his stomach. It's not that he has the upper hand- it's that Ignis has been impenetrable all evening and now... Now with Nyx it's like it's the first time he doesn't know how to proceed and it's just so human coming from someone that always seems so perfect.

"Surprised to see you out here," Nyx says, "you looked right at home with everybody in there." He nods his head towards the room behind them, and the muffled chatter coming out from all the wide open doors. Before answers, Ignis takes a long look at his glass of champaign then drinks the rest of it. 

"Long night, as you said." Ignis's eyes linger on the ground, like he's having a difficult time looking at Nyx straight. Then his gaze drifts up, lingering over Nyx's unbuttoned jacket and the opening at his neck. There's no way it's intentional. It's not a come on, or not planned to be one, as much as Nyx wants him to keep staring. He's been drinking again, and Nyx has had hardly two glasses himself. He's no lightweight. He can use the same excuse as last time, and he knows he shouldn't be pushing it. He knows how Ignis feels about the last time, and if experience is anything to go by then he knows that alcohol makes Ignis flirty and this is not something Nyx should be pushing. It's not something he should be anywhere near.

He steps closer. One more quick glance around tells him they're as alone as they can be and no one's been watching in on their private moment. "I've got a cure for that," he says, voice deep and low, and he swears he can almost feel the charge in the air between them, swears that Ignis's pulse just spiked, their eyes locked on each other and standing too close. Nyx risks a kiss. One placed on the edge of Ignis's jaw, brief and meant to tease, but he lets his lips linger all the same. 

"Give me 10 minutes." Ignis whispers the words and then he's gone, striding with a purpose back inside probably making sure that the evening is coming to a close, that the Prince is avoiding trouble and that his missing presence will go unnoticed. 

If anything it takes Ignis less than 10 minutes before he's strolling back outside, looking casual should anyone be watching, but Nyx can see the fire in his eyes and they way the dance around the garden again, right before he's snatching Nyx's hand up and dragging him to a back door exit that the landscaping staff uses. Ignis knows all the corridors and secret passages, how to stay out of sight from another soul. Just like last time. Just like last time they're crashing through his door, slamming it shut so they can get their hands and mouths on each other, hot and desperate, and Nyx can't get enough. He wants to breathe Ignis in and memorize all the perfect ways to touch him, the things Nyx can do to make him moan. 

He gets Ignis underneath him on the bed, and they fuck close and fast, Ignis's legs spread wide to accommodate him, then the snap closed around Nyx's waist. Fingers twist in Nyx's hair, tugging on his braids, pulling him down for kiss after kiss even when they're too out of breath to do much kissing at all. Ignis comes first but Nyx is collapsing on him soon after, head full of white noise and bodies sweaty. Nyx closes his eyes and memorizes the moment in a way he wasn't in a frame of mind to before. He thinks about how he just wants to regulate his breathing, maybe come down a little, and then they can go at it again. His last thought is about how he want this night to last because this time around, he'll be able to remember it.

And then he's blinking his eyes open in the morning sun, trying to get his bearings and figure out why he's not in his own bed.

Ignis is next to him, and not much longer awake judging by the wide eyes and the sheets clasped up to his chest, but the killer is that in that early light, his hair looks like honey and his eyes are prisms, reflect shades of green that Nyx hasn't even noticed before.

"So," Ignis says when he finds his voice, "about last night."

**FOUR**

It's borderline painful to watch.

It's made worse by the fact that it's all hidden, minor slights, the court speak of Royalty that's never saying what you actually mean, all the things that Nyx never would have picked up before, that would have gone over his head and he'd be oblivious to their hidden menace and meaning. It tells him he's been spending too much time in Court, at the Citadel, with people that he used to care nothing for and know nothing about. He's not sure when the change happened, but it's hear now, which means that listening in while he's standing guard in a meeting, he can pick out all the ways certain council members keep trying to trample over Ignis.

He handles himself well enough that Nyx knows this is a regular occurrence, and something he's probably been dealing with since he was first old enough to sit quiet in the corner and take notes for the Prince. Now, as a regular contributor and a trusted advisor, certain sitting members of the old regime do their best to make sure that Ignis understands his place. Ignis, in his best cool and placid personal, takes every slight with grace and pretends he doesn't know what they're implying. The King's absence at the meeting is only making things worse until even Nyx is shifting in his boots, wondering on a scale of 1-10 how inappropriate it would be to make the same sort of snide comments back at these men. 

He doesn't do it. Obviously. Maybe it's good fodder for heroic daydreams, but aside from getting his ass beat from the Glaive chain of command, Ignis would probably twist his balls off for it. If he's learned something about Ignis, it's that he doesn't like people fighting his fights for him. 

So Nyx stands guard, makes poorly hidden faces with every insult and when the meeting is adjourned he waits outside in the hallway, impatient and wondering if he's really about to go through with it.

Ignis is one of the last to leave. It's not so good for Nyx's impatience, but it means just about everyone else has cleared out, and luck is on his side because Ignis is distracted too, still shuffling around his stack of folders when he exists the double doors, oblivious to Nyx, who grabs at his arm and drags him behind one of the intricately carved marble pillars lining the hall. Before Ignis can ask what he's doing, Nyx's mouth is on his. Demanding, because they don't have much time, and Nyx's open mouth is just about the clearest way he can let Ignis know what he's thinking without words. 

Ignis doesn't push him away, but when Nyx breaks the kiss it still looks like he's trying to make up his mind about whether to rip Nyx a new one or not. 

"What are you _doing?_" Ignis demands in a whisper, so careful to keep his voice low.

"I don't know I just thought... after that meeting, you might want to uh, blow off some steam."

Or, if Ignis wants, Nyx will gladly do all the blowing. 

Ignis doesn't exactly looked surprised, because Nyx's is sure he's so carefully in control of all of his projected emotions that he never looks surprised. But he's considering. Whether it's considering to take him up on his offer, or have him kicked out of the Glaives and sent back to Galahd, Nyx isn't sure, right up until the moment Ignis narrows his eyes and says, "Elevators. 5 minutes."

It's not until Ignis is gone that Nyx realizes he'd been holding his breath. 

Five minutes later, brimming with anticipation, Nyx is strolling up to the elevators, pointedly pretending he barely notices Ignis striding up beside him, a chance encounter between two strangers waiting to go up. Even when it pings and the doors open, then shut again behind them, they stay quiet. Nyx has to resist the urge to whistle a tune, or do something cheeky, but he's got a feeling the move he pulled in the hallway has put him on thin ice as it is. But Ignis said yes. While sober and fully, entirely in his right mind and able to say no. Not that Nyx has been preying on him, but maybe thinking too hard about how hew knew Ignis had been drinking last time was making him feel more than a little guilty. He hadn't been trying to take advantage, he just was thinking with his libido instead of his brain. 

Their arrival on Ignis's floor brings Nyx out of his own thoughts, now nothing but anticipation to keep him occupied. It's all different this time around. Not some hookup after a night out. They're not clawing at each other's clothes as soon as Ignis opens the door, they walk instead of stumble into the bedroom.

It's the first time Nyx gets a good look at everything, the room looking different in daylight. Ignis's bed is covered in a near ridiculous amount of pillows, and Nyx almost wants to laugh or make a joke about it until a thought fills his head. Ignis, in the middle of a dark and lonely night, clutching on to a pillow because there's no other body there to cling on to and keep him warm. Suddenly it doesn't seem so funny, and Nyx has to wonder if Ignis really has a life outside of his job. 

The way they fuck is different this time around too. It's not the frantic, frustration quickie Nyx had been expecting, not the sudden crash and burnout from before.

They're kissing more, for one, when Ignis sets his briefcase down and turns to Nyx, arms wrapping around his neck. Everything feels more deliberate, from the way Ignis takes off his clothes to the way he flips Nyx onto his back and sits over him.

Ignis rides him, slow and rolling motions with his hips that keep them too close and too connected. It's too intimate, with clear afternoon sun shining in the window and everything in full and bright display. And the way Ignis holds onto Nyx's hands where they hold onto his hips, Nyx can pretend Ignis doesn't want him to let go. Near the end he pulls Ignis forward so that when he comes, it's while he's holding Ignis close to him. 

They're silent for a time after, before Ignis rolls off of him and checks the time, and Nyx can't be certain if Ignis sighed or if he just imagined it. 

"You can shower here, if you'd like," Ignis says, sitting up. "I've got to collect Noctis in less than an hour, but you can use the bathroom after me." 

"Or we could shower together," Nyx says, because he's still feeling confident from his victory, and determined to keep Ignis from going back to clinical and detached for as long as possible. Though mostly he's thinking about how, if they're to be parting so soon, then he'd rather keep the smell of Ignis on him. He's about to go to training anyway, and a shower for the sake of getting clean would be pointless. 

"That will only make me late." Ignis says, standing and sorting through their clothes, but before Nyx can reply there's the muffled buzzing of someone's phone. 

"Yours?" Nyx asks, the persistent noise indicating an incoming call. Ignis shakes his head, and Nyx says, "Back left pocket," when he sees Ignis reaching for his pants.

Only instead of fishing for Nyx's phone and handing it over, as he expects, Ignis pulls out his phone, then stops, staring hard at the screen. 

"Uh, Ignis?" Nyx says, when he shows no signs of moving, and Nyx frowns, wondering who could possibly be calling that would give that kind of reaction. He's had Libertus's contact name changed back from _Ass Face_ for a while now, and it's not like there could be anything else...

_Oh shit_.

"Oh, _shit_, Ignis-" Nyx darts up and his phone goes silent, and Ignis flashes him the screen before dropping it onto the bed. Nyx wants to blurt out some excuse, yell that _it's not what it looks like_, but the thing is, it's exactly what it looks like. Nyx made a picture of them- _the_ picture of them, bedroom, boozy faces, mid fuck- his background photo. It was a moment of absent stupidity, late at night when he kept opening up his photo album, staring at the picture, and he thought it'd save him some time if he just slapped it on as a wallpaper. No one but him ever had hands on his phone anyway. He didn't think anyone but him would see.

Definitely not Ignis. 

"You have pictures of me," is all he says. Not even accusatory, just a statement, but that lack of inflection alone is enough to tell Nyx that he's in deep shit.

"No one else has seen them," is what he finally says, because it seems like the best damage control he can come up with. 

He expects shouting. He expects to get kicked out and have Ignis tell him that he doesn't want to see him anymore, a dramatic showdown in which he tries to sincerely apologize, to explain himself and all the feelings that he hasn't been able to bring himself to articulate, but instead Ignis is overwhelmingly calm.

"Do you need to use the shower before you go."

Nyx is gaping at him, wondering when the explosion and fallout is going to come, so he just shakes his head.

"Well I need to get ready. I'm going to be late," Ignis says, and then walks with purpose to the bathroom, shutting the door solidly behind him, and it's all worse than an all out fight. It twists in Nyx's gut and he doesn't know how to make it better- but really, what has he expected? They're hooking up. That's it, and nothing more.

He gets dressed and leaves the apartment, quick and quietly as he can.

**FIVE**

Nyx looks dead ahead.

He's doing his best to remain entirely detached from the conversation, but it's hard when there are only two people talking. The King, in his throne and with an audience of Royals, and Ignis, kneeled at the foot of it, accepting formal recognition for his service to the crown. An informal ceremony, but a ceremony all the same which is why they're all puffed up and on display, even when Ignis has known this has been coming from a mile away just like the King knew he'd have to make a presentation of it, instead of a slap on the back and a friendly _I'm proud of you, good job,_ for his surrogate son. 

Nyx has learned the consequences of being a voyeur and overstepping bounds where Ignis is concerned, and that's not a lesson he needs to learn twice.

The ceremony itself is short and sweet, and there's an afternoon reception afterwards. All in all, it's the easiest guard duty job he's had all week, and more importantly the final one. After today, things go back to what counts as normal at the Citadel, and somehow they all survived. The Nox Fleurets leave the next morning, the procession from Accredo already gone. The weight is lifting, except for Nyx's its still feeling a little bit like he's in hell.

He's felt terrible, and he hasn't spoken to Ignis for the last two days. He's made himself as scarce as possible, even though complete avoidance is near impossible when they've both been a required presence at all the same events. But no more propositioning. No more daydreaming, no more photos, no more thinking about how good Ignis was in bed. He even changed his phone background, mostly because he couldn't check his messages without being overwhelmed with mortification. 

Ignis deserves better, and that's the long and short of it. If Nyx had ever had a shot with him, then he blew it. That was the end of that. Nyx would leave him in peace. So he thinks, watching the attendees take their tea and coffee, and offer their polite congratulations between bites of decadent finger food. Nyx is struck again by the performative nature of it all, of Ignis on his best behavior, and Nyx thinks, he will go in peace after this afternoon. After one last offer. 

He waits until Ignis is between conversations. The reception dying down and a handful of the guests already excusing themselves. The one positive that Nyx can dredge up in his trepidation is that at least Ignis will not make a scene here. No matter how much he may wish to tell Nyx off as soon as he approaches. It's the one thing that gives him enough courage to keep his voice steady when he says, "Ignis?'

Ignis turns to him, eyes wide, but keeping calm, and Nyx offers a hand for him to shake.

It may take a tense moment that stretches on for more than seconds in Nyx's mind, but then a warm hand slides into his, and Nyx gives it a firm shake. 

"Congratulation," Nyx says, and he means it so much, he realizes, so much it hurts, "Your recognition is well deserved, and the Crown is lucky to have you. Anyone... anyone would be lucky to have you."

Ignis's face changes and it takes all of Nyx's willpower to release his hand instead of hold on tight and make that moment last. 

"Enjoy the rest of the afternoon," Nyx says, and he leaves, forcing one foot in front of the other when he turns around, kicking himself for all the things he should have said and wanted to say but couldn't. It's best to leave it at that, better than standing there stammering and making himself feel even more pathetic. He leaves the room, not on duty anymore now that the ceremony's over, and he hears the heavy door shut behind him while his boots click with every stride down the hall. But then there's the sound of the door opening again, and before Nyx can wonder who else is scurrying out, someone calls his name.

"Nyx! Nyx wait."

Ignis follows him, not running, but Nyx gets the feeling only because he doesn't want anyone to spot him sprinting away from his own party. His cheeks are flushed again, but this time booze isn't the cause, and when he stops in front of Nyx, his brow is drawn together, thoughts working in his head, but not quite ready to come out.

"Why-" Ignis says, abrupt and slightly too loud, stopping Nyx as he began to turn away, "why did you do it?"

He doesn't sound mad, but when Nyx looks at him, beyond the rigid walls that surround him, he thinks Ignis looks nervous. He looks uncertain. He looks embarrassed. And really, the question sounds like it's to do with some other situation, not some picture that wound up as the background on Nyx's phone, but he also knows the implications his actions could hold. People don't just make random dirty photos with a one night stand into their wallpaper. They don't stare at them every day.

"I can't get you out of my head," Nyx says. In its simplicity, that's what everything comes down too, and it's the truth. It's why he's kept coming back.

Ignis doesn't respond, and instead of letting things get more awkward Nyx thinks it might be best if he took his leave. But again Ignis stops him just as he starts to go.

"Take me to dinner sometime?"

It might be a plea. It sounds like it took all of Ignis's courage to get the words out and like he's already backing away from them in regret, but Nyx's chest feels full and it takes a detached moment for him to realize that he's grinning. He steps forward, a hand clasping and intertwining with Ignis's, and he says, "Yeah. Gladly," before leaning in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm well aware of the fact that most phones blur out the background picture when you're getting an incoming call just. ignore that. _ignore it_


End file.
